Replication tools allow virtual machines to be moved to new location and allow backup and recovery in minutes instead of hours

PRLog - Feb. 21, 2012 - Reading, UK – 21st February 2012: Professional research and consulting organisation YouGov has used Veeam Software’s Backup & Replication v5 (“Backup 5”) to safely, accurately and quickly perform a migration of its core IT infrastructure from a managed service data centre in Berlin to a new location in London. By virtualising its IT infrastructure in Berlin and then simply replicating the data to the London data centre, YouGov has been able to perform the migration in record time; reduce the cost of transporting equipment and data; and eliminate concerns about having compatible storage and other hardware on-site at both Berlin and London.

“Our decision to migrate from Berlin to London was down to two very simple reasons: cost and control,” said Nicholas Carter, Director of Global Systems Operations at YouGov. “We had initially been very happy with the Berlin-based managed service, yet additional services and capability had to be taken on the providers’ terms: reducing our flexibility and locking us into their costs. We therefore decided to purchase colocation space in London, allowing us to control the infrastructure that was in place and ensure we were always getting the best price. However, the migration itself could have been hugely complex: reproducing the underlying physical architecture would have been near-impossible because the London centre used a different storage system. By virtualising both environments, we found a simple way to make the migration work.”

By using Backup 5’s replication capabilities, YouGov could replicate the virtual infrastructure in the Berlin managed data centre directly to the London colocation centre. The migration of this data, which was measured in terabytes, was performed over a number of days; using Backup 5’s speed to minimise the size of replication windows. As a result YouGov could move its essential applications, such as Sharepoint and Symantec Enterprise Vault, onto the new infrastructure and have them ready to work with the minimum of disruption or overtime. As well as this, using Backup 5 meant YouGov could streamline its backup process: this had previously relied on two separate tools, one for Windows and the other for Linux, both designed for physical machines. Daily incremental backups that used to take hours due to the complexity involved are now completed in 20 minutes.

“The whole project has been a huge success,” added Carter. “YouGov is an expanding business so using the lessons and processes we have learned in this migration will help us consolidate data centres as we grow and acquire new businesses.”